Tempting fate
by Tyrannicide
Summary: Glimpses of Raven through various stages of his life, how people and regimes alike have taken part in shaping him.


On that day, Raven buried his late father at the cemetery. The boy hardly noticed or remembered who was at the funeral that day, nor later on did he wanted to recall details of that moment. His eyes were swelling from crying too much that he struggled to see around him when he shoveled piles of dirt and poured them above his father's grave. His heart ached when the dirt had almost covered the coffin. He stopped to stare until the grave was filled by the shoveling hands of others...

Raven silently sat next to the new grave after everyone had left. He didn't want to believe it, he wished it was just a dream, a nightmare and when he woke up, everything would go away, and it would be his father who stepped into his room to wake him up in the morning. He regretted all the times he could have spent with his father, like simply waking up earlier and preparing the breakfast together with him...

Raven loved his father, who was a kind and thoughtful man. He didn't spoil his child, and insisted on raising Raven to be self-sufficient and not relying on others. He didn't speak much, but his actions sometimes spoke ways more than what words can deliver.

But it was his martial prowess that Raven admired the most. He was a courageous and formidable warrior, and it was natural for Raven who lived under the same root with him to imitate. Raven begged his father to teach him martial arts, but his father was in no rush. He wanted to wait for Raven to grow up and by that time he could choose a career he felt he was most fitting for, not simply following the same path as him without any prior consideration.

However when the very reluctant father finally gave in and started to teach Raven to fight, shortly after Raven could feel that he was born to do that. When seeing Raven could perform very well what was taught, Raven's father shrugged in acceptance, and from that point, teaching Raven altogether with his apprentices. Raven's father told himself that knowing how to fight could be useful when protecting oneself, and not necessarily meant his son having to choose to become a soldier later on.

However he did not even live to the day he could advise Raven about his future career. And the model of his father as a strong fighter already occupied a large part of Raven's awareness regarding his father, before he could learn more about his father's life, beside him being a warrior. His death only inadvertently bent Raven toward the path of soldiering. Raven felt motivated to hone his sword fighting ability as a way to commemorate his father and appeasing his missing feelings for him. He wanted to live up to the legacy of his father and walking on the same road he had tread before…

* * *

After Raven father's passed away, luckily for Raven, a Velder general adopted him to House Cronwell, an aristocrat family of the country. General Cronwell was very kind and generous to Raven, and when Raven said he wanted to follow the same path as his biological father, he sent Raven to study at a prominent Military Academy.

At there, Raven studied well, partly thanks to his "private tutor" who was also his close friend Owen Felford. He, Owen and a girl named Seris when graduated were considered among the "cream of the crop" the Military Academy had educated, a fact which amazed Raven till this day.

General Cronwell was overjoyed when Raven handed him the graduate certificate. He hugged Raven tightly, feeling he could partly making up for the death of Raven's father and was proud because House Cronwell could produce another excellent soldier. Raven was also very moved because how well general Cronwell had treated him, he could not ask for any better treatment than that from the man.

_ General. Thank you so much… for everything.

Raven uttered with a slightly shaking voice.

General Cronwell's smiling face slightly frowned. He looked Raven straight in his eyes and said:

_ Today I want to hear you calling me as "father", not as "general" anymore. I know you love your late father, but I also love you as son even though I didn't bear you… It has been many years since you have become a Cronwell, can you make this old man happy this time?

Raven hesitated and avoided to call sir Cronwell as his father because he felt the pressure as being adopted as lineage of someone with the reputation as a hero of the nation. But by then he felt he had done well so far and had not bringing shame to his father and adopted father's reputations at all. He was emboldened to finally addressed sir Cronwell:

_ Father! I don't know what could I do to repay your devotions and kindness for me. I will be your sword, your right hand…

* * *

_ Why? Why you betrayed us, Owen?

Raven was limping with the wounds inflicted upon him, his left hand was lost. He shouted at Owen who was standing from a distance away, in the dark. Soldiers were surrounding Raven to prevent him from escaping.

Raven looked around, scattered everywhere were the corpses of his comrades. He was the only one alive, even though from the start he requested the soldiers to spare everyone and only killing him, in turn they wouldn't resist. Owen declined, ordered the soldiers under his command to kill everyone nevertheless, the ones who were former comrades of Owen himself.

They battled, Raven was not able to put up a proper fight, he was exhausted after being imprisoned and then escaped. Looking down at his fiancee lying dead after a mortal wound, then looking across the tense faces of the soldiers around him, Raven solemnly spoke his final words:

_ Gentlemen, I will forgive you for what you have done today, because you don't know what you're doing. Not that traitor standing over there though, because he knew exactly what he was up to. I was framed, falsely accused as a scapegoat. The ones you have killed were my comrades, who fought long and hard together with me, for the well beings of our country. And this is how they repay us!  
Since I was very young I was taught that "Don't bite the hand that feed you". And I have lived up to that. That's the basic principle for a society to function. But is even upholding that simply asking too much from you? Then what ensures that they would never betray you like when they betrayed me?  
So later on, if you witness disasters befalling this nation, reflecting upon the deeds you have committed today and thanks to that, we won't be able to be there to save you, and don't be surprised when that turn out to be the well-deserved divine retribution for this showing of ingratitude and treachery! Dixi. *****

Raven tried his best to stand straight up valiantly and waited for the order of his execution, but there was none. Owen ordered them all to leave, reasoning that Raven was about to die from his wounds anyway.

* * *

Multiple beams of laser gun shots stretched across the corridors of Altera Core. The Nasod gunners were clumping together into groups and shooting at the enemies they could observe from afar. Their enemies were engaging the Nasod Inspectors and Bladers, which tried to stop them to little effect. Every second there would be on average one Nasod melee fighter dropping down to the ground. A trail of broken Nasod corpses littered the corridor.

Suddenly a source of blinding light erupted and blanketed over the Nasod gunners. They were annihilated before even realizing what hit them.

"Useless" Raven thought when looking down the remnants of the Nasod gunners. As potent as the power based weapons can be, the beams shot from the weapons were much slower compared to projectile-shooting guns, and the bright, long beams would easily giving away the position of the shooters when even human eyes can track their trajectories to deduce the directions the beams were coming from.

The so-called El Search Party was storming the Altera's Core to search for the lost El Stone. After having removed the group of Nasod snipers, Raven intended to help his comrades taking down the remaining Nasod melee group. However he heard voices in his head, voices not of himself…

"…e…st…su…test…subject…13…7".

Raven felt his brain was hurt. It felt oddly similar to the feelings back when he was mind controlled by King Nasod… For some reasons Raven covered his ears and thought "No, I'm not your test subject! I'm Raven!"

"Raven, hear me. This is King Nasod. Leave, now!"

"I'm coming and I've got a present for you!"

"I saved you. I gave you a new life. You're indebted to me and I admit I have enlisted your help without your consent-"

Multiple Nasod bladers dropped down a short distance away from Raven. Trying his best to not be distracted by King Nasod's talking which went straight into his head thanks to the Nasod augmentation devices left in his body, Raven swung his blade to destroy the nearest Nasod blader's legs, then grabbing a different blader's limb with his Nasod arm and plunging his blade through its torso.

"Remember that you owed me a life. So can you leave me and my children alone? You're free to go, just don't team up with that group who's massacring us for their own agenda. You're not obliged to help them at all."

"No, I will get you, and I know I want that. I will take back the El Stone". Raven replied on his head when lobbing a grenade around the corner of a wall. He was amused because King Nasod attempted to appeal to him to leave the El Search Party and abandoning their attack.

"Think of what you owe us. I saved you from the brink of death, replacing your lost limb, enhancing you with state-of-the-art technologies. You may perceive my controls upon you as forceful, in your human words, 'slavery'. However the perceived unfair treatment would actually not be any different than between me and the other Nasods. Not counting a few exceptions, I have controlled them exactly the same way".

Most of the combat Nasods were lying dead. El Search Party was at the front of a large door, which would lead into the chamber hosting King Nasod himself. The Ponggo technicians were hacking the door to open it.

_ What happened to you Mr Half-Nasod? Are you hurt? You look pale.

Ain spoke when he saw the state of Raven who was struggling when King Nasod spoke directly to his head. Everyone turned to look at him in worry. Raven denied, intended to keep it to himself alone.

"You can still leave now. That's the best way you can do to repay your debts to me. Don't betray your creator!".

Raven suddenly felt angers erupted like wild fire inside of him. He told King Nasod:

"And you're the one to talk? Wasn't it also the humans who built you, brought you into existence, only for you to rebel against them? Talking about debts, you owe the humans your very own existence and everything they had lost after you betrayed them. Our ancestors knew what had to be done, we thought we destroyed you, but you survived until this day, and still trying to harm humans of this era… I can't afford to let you slip away another time".

The heavy metal doors slowly slid open. The Ponggos managed to hack it and they were successful. The El Search Party rushed to the chamber behind the door. Raven stepped forward, looking up at the metallic behemoth before him and declared:

_ Now we meet at last, King Nasod! For the survival of mankind and vengeance long-due, we will terminate you once and for all!

…

And terminated he did. King Nasod ceased to function. He was destroyed beyond recovery.

Finally.

But having outlasted one of the greatest evildoer in human history, Raven felt it was strangely hollow.

He didn't know should he feel glad or sad.

In a way, he had buried his father the second time, by his very own hands.

* * *

Velder had fallen.

Everywhere were hellish scenes of destruction and dead, with the literal demons wrecking untold amount of havoc. Every day was a struggle to survive the vicious and organized demons who were armed to the teeth. Every meter of ground gain was paid dearly with blood. The air was hard to breath because of smoke as everything was burning. Velder Guards garrison force - the strongest line of defense, was almost dismantled over the duration of a night because the demons attacked from inside the palace, the inner most layer of the castle's walls.

The humans mounted a desperate assault, attempting to take back the city. The fierce resistances from demons and the terrains combined with fortifications favoring the defenders blunted the strength of the attack considerably. And then the demon force launched a counter-attack, which broke the back of the human army. It was a miracle that the retreat didn't turn into a completely disorder rout, preventing a very bad situation from escalating into a disaster.

Escorting the beaten and decimated remnants of the hodgepodge Velder army together with El Search Party, Raven thought he would remember this day of infamy in his bones. He thought "I told you so. But I end up having to save you after all".

Reconnaissance units reported that they heard a column of glitter armored vehicles attempted to give chase to the retreating human soldiers and civilians alike. Many panicked because they had little means to combat effectively against those threats.

There had been really 4 Glitter Vanguards driving in searching for the humans. The only good news was that they didn't know exactly where the humans were yet.

El Search Party lying in ambush along a somewhat narrow alley. When the column of Glitter Vanguards coming near, they immobilized the first vehicle, concentrating to sabotage its tracks. Then they quickly immobilized the vehicle at the last of the column in the same fashion. The column of tanks was literally stopped on their tracks…

They continued to retreat, performing all of the delay tactics they could carry out to slow the chasing demons down. Elsword attempted a last stand with himself alone to stop a group of demons closest to them.

Then Elsword was rescued by his sister, who was named Elesis, when he was inches away from the jaws of death. Since that incident she accompanied the retreating human army.

_ Excuse me. Are you… oh my goodness, Captain Raven, is that you?

Elesis spotted Raven when she was introducing herself to the group. Looking at the one who maybe the only person among them who knew him before his rebirth into a half nasod, Raven smiled bitterly, and since his right hand was busy helping a wounded trooper to move, he saluted with his left hand:

_ Raven's here. Or to be more accurate, what's left of me.

Elesis was bewildered when she saw Raven's mechanical arm. Still not believing in her eyes, she stepped close to him and touched it with her hands. She asked:

_ Tell me Raven, what have they done to you?

At that point Raven had already long passed the horizon of his despair. He coldly whispered:

_ They… completed me.

* * *

 **Notes:**

 ***Dixi:** Latin for "I have spoken". Used by the ones giving speeches to announce that they had done speaking.


End file.
